RETROGRESSIVE FACTORS:

II. THE MONOPOLIST.

When diamonds were first discovered here, in the true old South African
manner, the find was considered as one for the people at large. For years
there flocked to the Diamondfields colonists from every part of the country,
and the wealth discovered went back to the homes of the people. That wealth
rebuilt many a Colonial homestead; it educated many a Colonial child; it
enabled landowners to carry out improvements otherwise
impos-
impossible
page: 32 sible; it saved from insolvency
many a Colonial firm which had sent members to dig; it spread throughout the
country a glow of well-being, owing to the general diffusion in small sums
of the wealth made by South Africa from the diamonds. Something analogous
took place in the early days at the Transvaal gold-fields; and gold-digging
has never yet become quite so complete a monopoly in the hands of a few as
the diamond industry.

Time forbids that I should enter into a detailed account of the way in which
these industries passed from their early and healthy condition; the
page: 33 facts are well known to you all. There
were in South Africa certain men from Europe, of great shrewdness, and with
large abilities for speculation, who saw at once the possibilities our
natural industries opened out before them. The many small original
possessors of the wealth of South Africa were not men of vast means, and
were rather hard workers than sharp financial speculators; and the
keen-sighted strangers quickly discerned that, could they buy out the small
interests one by one and then amalgamate among themselves, slowly but surely
the wealth of the country would pass into their hands.

page: 34

It needed no vast capital to buy out the original possessors.

To-day a small, resolute, and keen body of men, amalgamated into Rings and
Trusts, are quickly and surely setting their hands round the mineral wealth
of South Africa. Our diamonds are already a complete monopoly in their
hands; our gold, our coal, the richest portions of our soil, and even our
public works, are tending to fall into the grasp of our great amalgamators.
Not only are these men not South Africans by birth, which would in itself
matter nothing, but in the majority of cases they are men who regard South
Africa merely
page: 35 as a field for the making of
wealth and the furthering of their own designs. When they have attained
their end they do not feel themselves bound to the spot which has enriched
them, but in most cases retire to Europe to expend the wealth of South
Africa in the purchase of social distinction and in the luxuries of
old-world life, or in further increasing their command over South African
resources.

And South Africa grows poorer!

Yet, were this all, we should be inclined to say, What ground have we for
complaint? These men are but taking advantage
page: 36 of that competitive system which we to-day still uphold. If the men of
South Africa are not skilled enough in the methods of gathering together the
wealth of a people; and if they have not that fellow-feeling to be able to
defeat them, which would enable them to combine, and so retain the land for
the people at large; can we blame the men who take advantage of our
ignorance and disunion? They are but carrying out their operations on the
most approved financial principles! In truth, were this all, we should
merely be suffering in a most exaggerated degree from a disease common to
many other countries.